UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi my son has been in a property for 2 years which he has just vacated. The property was let for the landlord  through a well known estate agent. His deposit has been protected through My deposits, the landlord has agreed to a full refund but the agent refuses to release it saying the landlord has to pay out of his own pocket. My son has no rent arrears. We have now submitted a dispute form to My deposits and wondered what is the likelihood of my son getting his money back and who is responsible for the payment?

Your son should get his money back, hopefully without any hassle. You don't go into any reasons why the Agent is behaving as they are. The Agent is employed by the Landlord and should do whatever they say / instruct them to do... it sounds like there is conflict between these two parties, but it is not clear why. Does the Agent believe the Landlord owes them money? If so they may have 'stolen' the deposit, thinking that is the only way they can get money... but this would be wrong... the deposit is not their money, it is not the Landlord's money, it is the Tenant's money.

It is quite complicated, but here goes. When my son took on the tenancy it was with a different agent that got into money difficulties (court case ongoing), and most of the properties on the books were then taken over by another agent.  My son's deposit was held by My deposits and when we had notification that it wasn't protected after a certain date we contacted the new agent and they said it was fine and being protected with My deposits again. My son has a certificate and we have checked that it is protected. We were told by the new agent that they had used 1 of his months rent as a deposit. When my son terminated his tenancy the agent said he was 2 months in arrears but as we have kept all receipts we proved he wasn't.  The agent will only return my sons deposit if the landlord will pay out of his own pocket.

Inform the Agent that you would like to use the Alternative Dispute Resolution service that the Scheme in question offers?

After several phone calls to the agent to try to sort this out, he suggested we start the dispute process which we have now done with Mydeposits. They have notified the agent and we have to await their response. Apparently the agent has to consent to use the ADR, which I have a feeling he will refuse, and the onus lies on the party refusing ADR to initiate court proceedings. So where will this leave my son and his deposit. If the agent does refuse?

You sons original deposit was lost, and the landlord should bare this loss.

So the landlord at that point when the rent was used as a deposit, would of in effect "paid" the new deposit as he didn't get any income.

So the Agent is wrong, the money held should be returned as is, not back to the Agent. This is a nonsense.

The Agent is trying it on, and your son should be able to recover the money which is protected, without the landlord having to pay. I wouldn't speak anymore with the Agent, as they are LIARS.

Just to let you know, my son finally had his deposit returned in full after 4 months! We had to constantly chase My Deposits up to get any information, then we had an email from them to say they were pleased we had come to a mutual agreement with the agent and the situation was resolved. Nothing from the agent!  Disgusting practice from them. I would advise other tenants that are entitled to a refund of their deposit to fight for it all the way and don't give up. I was under the impression there were time limits for the dispute process, obviously not in this case. Thank you for your advice.

Worse things happen at sea. Good news.

Great plug...

This seems ridiculous. As has already been said the agents can't do that. I'm late to this post but as a tenant myself, my ears are certainly pierced. May i ask what was the resolution?

I been thinking about this for days now... but, for the life of me, I can't figure out what someone having pierced ears has to do with a deposit dispute...